Seven

This superb production of a play written by seven women is performed by seven actors portraying seven contemporary real-life women leaders from seven countries: Nigeria, Cambodia, Argentina, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Russia, and Pakistan. The actors dramatize astonishing true stories of how these women overcame religious and national traditions of silence, fear, and submission to give voice to the voiceless and change the lives of other women. They handle the seven accents so well and tell the stories with such intensity that they are entirely convincing. The second CD goes deeper into the issues through panel discussions with playwrights Cizmar and Yankowitz and one of the women portrayed in the play, Russian leader Marina Pisklakova-Parker. (May)